Elevator signaling system



Jan. '5, 1937. D. LEwY 2,066,841

ELEVATOR SIGNALING SYSTEM Filed Jan. 24, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet l lwuentoz .28

Jan. 5, 1937. D. LEWY 2,066,841

ELEVATOR SIGNALING SYSTEM 7 Filed Jan. 24, l28 s Sheets-Sheet 2 FLOGB '6 Jan. 5, 1937. D. LEWY 2,066,841

ELEVATOR SIGNALING SYSTEM Filed Jan. 24, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Azoa/a 6 m lzaana 6 V ZZZZm Patented Jan. 5, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELEVATOR SIGNALING SYSTEM Application January 24, 1928, Serial No. 249,012

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved elevator signaling apparatus, and the principal object is to provide means whereby each elevator in a system will be caused to do its pro rata share of work each trip and thereby maintain the proper spacing in the elevator hatch with respect to the other elevators in the system.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the signal lights of the elevator in the lead, traveling up or down in the shafts, are automatically eliminated thus allowing this elevator to receive no more signals until it is again properly spaced with respect to the other elevators.

Another object is to provide an automatic means for canceling signals which is operated solely by the relative positions or the elevators in their respective shafts.

Another object is to provide automatic means for causing the following elevator to be responsive to the operation of the floor push button instead of the nearest approaching elevator as is now common in all elevator systems; the action being effected by the relative position of the elevators in their respective shafts.

A further object is to provide means whereby the near approach of the following elevator sets up a signal in the elevator in the lead.

A further object is to provide automatic means for rendering the nearest. elevator traveling in the direction corresponding to the floor button operated, non-responsive to the operation of said floor button.

A further object is to provide automatic means for preventing more than one elevator at a time from being responsive to the action of an operated floor push button when the several elevators get in close proximity to said floor push button and are traveling in the same direction corresponding to the directional button operated.

A further object is to provide means whereby the spacing of the elevators in the system is virtually kept uniform in spite of the varying conditions oi traflic within the building itself.

For the accomplishment of other new and useful objects, the invention consists in the features of novelty in the combination and ar rangement as hereinafter more completely described.

The efficiency of an elevator system employing a number of elevators in parallel service depends largely upon the co-operation between the several units. The prior art means for informing the elevator operators how to schedule their elevators are numerous. In one system signals are received by the operator of the elevator from the starter on the main floor. In another system verbal instructions are received from the starter. In still another system, bells or lights are used to start the elevators from their terminals at certain periods. In another system, the run of the elevator can be interrupted or continued for a definite period. These systems operate entirely on a time scheduling basis.

The system comprising the present invention has for its basis of operation an automatic means adapted to schedule the runs of the various cars depending upon the positions of the various cars in the bank or system of elevator cars.

In a bank of passenger elevators in any ofiice building, the elevators are usually of the same speed and therefore if each elevator did the same amount of work, that is, made the same number of stops in its up or down run, then the elevators would remain automatically spaced in the hatches as they should be. However, this condition never exists because the human element enters in. Sometimes a car will arrive at the main floor of a building and will unload from sixteen to eighteen people, its full capacity. The operator has barely opened the door of this car before the car following also arrives at the first floor and unloads one or two passengers. If the first car unloaded approximately nine or ten passengers and the next following car unloaded nine or ten more passengers, it would tend to indicate that these cars had made approximately the same number of stops and that they are doing an equal amount or" work. Therefore, they would really come down to the main floor properly spaced, instead of having one car overtake the other.

The device forming the subject of this invention could be made to start the various elevators from the bottom. or top floor of a building by means of a bell or a light arranged so that when the following car reached the second floor coming down it would notify the car at the bottom to start up.

For a better understanding of the invention, assume that three or four cars are coming down or going up and that they are equally spaced between the top and bottom as they should be for rendering the best service. Now, it might happen that one of these cars is making numerous stops, Whereas the car immediately following is making very few or practically no stops. It is evident that the car making no stops or just a few will gradually creep up on and possibly overtake the car in the lead which is doing the bulk of the work. Now if the car doing the maximum amount of work, which originally was in the lead, were relieved of its necessity to stop for the passengers waiting at the various floors and the car following was to stop and take on those passengers, then the car following could not overtake the car in the lead.

In the present system when a car tends to overtake another car and gets within say two floors of the car in the lead, then the signals of the car in the lead are automatically eliminated and this car in the lead does not receive any more signals until it has advanced far enough in its travel so that it is again properly spaced. In the meantime the car following, and which was about to overtake the preceding car, receives the signals which were eliminated from the car doing the bulk of the work, originally in the lead, and beginning to lag behind. The signals for the car which is being overtaken remain eliminated until it gets ahead to its proper zone when it can again receive passengers. In addition to the familiar manual transfer switch in the car, the invention seeks to provide an automatic means for performing the same function as the manual switch whenever the car behind gets into close proximity to the car ahead of it, and naturally the car which was beginning to overtake the leading car would receive the signals from waiting passengers and in doing this would lose time, relatively speaking, enabling the former leading car to get ahead into the proper zone again. The device would simply automatically cut out the signals of the car being overtaken and thus permit it to proceed in its travel until it can get in the relative position where it was supposed to be before it received any more signals to stop. Therefore the car behind always tends to speed up the car in the lead because it is relieving the car in the lead of doing any unnecessary stopping. By keeping the cars properly spaced the cars landing at the main floor will always have the same relative amount of time to reload. Under present conditions, the car coming down heavily loaded is behind time because it is forced to make so many stops and if it were attempted to start it up at the proper interval of time it would not have enough time to reload. The traffic conditions are automatically governed and it can also be arranged that when one car nearly reaches the ground floor, it will signal the car already loading at that floor that it is time for it to leave on a run.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1, la and lb show a schematic arrangement of the system as applied to a parallel installation of three elevators. The figures are to be placed side by side, Figure l at the left, Figure 1a in the middle and Figure lb to the ri ht of Figure la. The three figures when so pieced together represent the entire wiring diagram for a complete system embodying the invention.

The elevators operating in parallel shafts are numbered l, 2 and 3 respectively, the elevators f and 2 traveling downwardly and the elevator 3 'raveling upwardly, traversing the fioors of a seven story building. The elevators are equipped with the usual counterbalances and shifting mechanism for operating the wiper shafts situated at some suitable point in the building, all of which are familiar in the art. The left hand side of the drawing shows all of the passengeroperated down push buttons and the right side of the drawing shows all of the passenger-operated up push buttons.

Assume now that cars l and 2 are traveling downwardly, car I being near the seventh floor and car 2 being near the third floor. A prospective passenger is waiting to go down at the fifth fioor and car I has taken on some passengers from the floors above. The prospective passenger presses push button 10, thereby energizing the relay coil l3 from a source of current I2 and closing the armature M to complete a circuit from current source 12 through wire 15, light wiper l6, wire ll, light wiper 18, wire 19a, lamp El and the negative side of the current source 12. This current is only effective with relation to car I because the light wipers 20 and 21 of car 2, in the signal commutator which is driven by and in accordance with the movement of each car which is also traveling downwardly, has passed the contacts complemental to floor 5, and the light wipers 22 and 23 in the commutator of car 3 not making contact with floor contacts because car 3 is traveling upwardly. All of the contact wipers in the commutator for each car are mounted on the horizontal shafts common to said car and said shafts are adapted to be shifted so as to throw the contact wipers in t the direction in which the car is traveling. All of this arrangement is old and will not be described in detail and does not form the subject .ldttSl' of this invention. When down pushbutton i8 is pressed the light over the elevator door of the first approaching elevator will illuminate two floors in advance of the elevators arrival at said floor. This condition is brought about by a means in the system, forming no part of this invention since many devices have been arranged for illuminating floor lights several floors in advance of the car. The operators signal, in this instance a light 24, will illuminate, by previous e ingement, approximately a floor and one-half in advance of the elevators approach to The operators signal in the car is exting'wshed before the car reaches floor 5. The passen er signal over the door remains illuminated until the car has passed that fioor and likewise the push button relay is reset, by means of :re restoring relay coil 25 which is energized by our :nt controlled by the cancel wiper 26 which in turn operated by the elevator mechanism, after the car passes the floor. At the same time the current passes to the operators signal 24 a from the operators flash section 21 on the wiper Hi. This section of the wiper is insulated from the main light wiper. From the section 21, the current passes over wire 23 to the lamp or signal 24. Strictly speaking, the operators flash is not quite ready to be lighted when the fioor signal is given because the car is on the seventh floor and it would have to descend one-half floor before this cperators section on the wiper comes in communication with th fifth fioor down contact. The operators flash or signal does not come into operation until the car is one and one-half floors away the fifth floor.

The cancel wiper circuit 29 is still open because this wiper 28 lags behind the car and will not come in communication with the fifth floor down contact until just after the car goes down past the fifth floor. The circuit 29 leads up into the car to the manual transfer switch 30.

At the points marked XX, Fig. l the main feed wire ill to the manual transfer switch in the car is opened to accommodate connections to the automatic elevator spacer or spacer commutating device A, complemental to elevator number I. Spacers or spacer commutating devices B and C their up or down positions, depending upon are complemental to elevators number 2 and 3 respectively and are connected in the same manner in corresponding circuits. These automatic elevator spacers form the gist of this invention. At the points marked XX the automatic spacer, forming the subject of this invention, could be connected and added to many of the standard elevator signaling systems well known in the art and in the specific system shown it is connected in what is commercially accepted as a standard office building signaling system. The conductors 3| and 32 would not be broken as at XX so that the connection would be continuous from the negative side of the generator if the automatic spacer were not installed in the circuit.

From the drawings it will be seen that in the large covered housing cable for a particular elevator, there are five conductors, namely, the conductor 28 for the operators flash; the conductor 19 for the feed common wire for the signal circuits of the lights or signals over the doors; the conductor 29 for the cancel circuit; the main feed conductor 3| coming from the negative side of the generator l2 and the conductor 33 leading from the transfer or operators cut out switch 30 to the automatic elevator spacer A of car number I. The relay switch D which is actuated by the Wipers of the automatic elevator spacer A is connested in the signal circuit 3|, 32.

The transfer switch in the elevator car of previous systems is placed there so that if it is desired to run the car through without stopping, the operator may open this switch and in so doing will prevent his car from cancelling any signals which have been set by passengers pressing buttons. The opening of such switch will also extinguish all lights over the door of this particular elevator and incidentally of course the operators signal in the car.

The conductor control circuit 33, which is the additional conductor required for the automatic elevator spacer A, will also be opened in the complete system embodying the automatic elevator spacers when the operator opens the transfer switch 30. This connection is necessary in order to keep the car I from affecting the relay switches D, E and F which have, respectively, the circuit breaking solenoids (Z1, 61, and f1, and the circuit making or restoring solenoids d2, es and f2 when it is desired to run car I through with a full load or for special purposes.

Considering the automatic spacers, A, B and C more specifically, it-will be seen that these consist of an up contact and a down contact for each floor and the corresponding contacts of each spacer are interlocked. There are three down wipers or contactors, 34, 35 and 36 and three up wipers 31, 38 and 39 for elevator numher I. Likewise, there are three down wipers 40, 4| and 42 and three up wipers 43, 44 and 45 for elevator number 2 and three down wipers 46, 41 and 48 and three up wipers 49, 50 and 5| for elevator number 3; the first wipers 34, 40, 46, are energizing contactors; the second wipers 35, 4|, 41 are for making a connection, when on the same contact as the energizing contactor of another car to break the corresponding signal circuit; and wipers 36, 42, 48 restore saidcircuits. Thus the circuits which include the solenoids are control circuits, and control the signal circuits physically connected to each car. All three down wipers or contactors for any particular elevator ride over and communicate with all the down contacts for that elevator and all three up wipers for any elevator ride over and communicate with all the up contacts for that elevator. The down wipers and up wipers for any particular spacer are mounted on shafts and the wipers on each shaft are insulated from each other. The wiper shaft is shifted from the up position to the down position in the same manner as the other light wiper shafts are shifted, that is, by the elevator mechanism. For the sake of clearness in the drawings, the shifting mechanism has not been shown as this is old and well known in the art and is identical with the shifting mechanism shown in connection with the other wiper shafts in the drawings. In fact, these wipers may be placed on the same shaft with the wipers for the office building system. In practice, these elevator spacers A, B and C can be installed wherever any other signaling system is in use and thus, the same shifting mechanism in use in that system could be used to shift the spacer wipers of the present system.

Referring to spacer A, it will be noted that the down wiper 34 has a jumper connecting it with the up wiper 31; down wiper 35 has a jumper connecting it with the up wiper 38; down wiper 36 has a jumper connecting it with the up wiper 39. The same means of connecting the wipers is employed in spacers B and C. There is no object in having the wipers for the automatic elevator spacers differently shaped, but these have been shown as of different shapes in order to render it more convenient in following the connections. Instead of employing wipers as shown, any well known commutating machine could be used which would answer the same purpose.

In order to show the automatic spacer A in action, the wipers 34, 35 and 36 have been shown in a position corresponding to the position of the two elevators, number I and number 2, which in the particular instance, are four floors apart and traveling downwardly. That is, wipers 34 and 35 are, in their position, four floors apart. Wiper 36 lags behind by two floors. These Wipers are adjustable so that any spacing desired may be obtained. In actual practice it would probably be desired to open switch D only when elevator number I was at least within two floors of elevator number 2 which would mean that wipers 34 and 35 would have to be moved closer together, that is, the angle between them would be equivalent to the angle between three floor contacts. The setting of the wipers would take place on the job after the installation of the elevators was completed and would be determined by the number of elevators and trafiic conditions but whatever setting is arrived at, the wipers on all of the spacers would be set alike. It is apparent then that the angle between wiper 34 and wiper 35 will determine how near the following car (elevator number I) can approach the leading car (elevator number 2) before the wipers trip the switch E which will cut out all signals pertaining to the preceding car (elevator 2). Likewise the setting of wiper 36 will determine how far the leading car can pass through before its relay switch is closed thereby again permitting the leading car to receive signals. The ability to adjust these wipers makes it possible to meet any traflic conditions.

Instead of employing wipers, brushes in combination with any well known horizontal or vertical type commutating machine embodying segments for the floor contacts could be used, and by setting the brushes nearer together or farther apart, the same flexibility could be obtained.

As shown on the drawings elevator number i has opened the automatic switch E of elevator number 2 preventing elevator 2 from receiving the signal and allowing it to pass through. The relay switches D, E and F are provided with armatures d3, es and is. The relay switch D is provided with an initiating coil (Z1, and a restoring coil (is. Likewise relay switch E is provided with an initiating coil c1 and a restoring coil e2. Relay switch F is provided with an initiating coil f1, and a restoring coil in. Assuming that car as shown, is the leading car, then since the automatic spacer B is actuated by the movement of car 2, wiper 45 will assume the position shown in the drawings. Current will then be permitted to flow from the positive f ed line over wire thence through the coil e1, and in so doing energizing said coil to attract armature c3 and break the circuit in line 53, thence through wiper H and over he circuit to wiper 34, through wiper 34 to wire 33, to switch 30, to wire 3!, thence through armature 013 and back over wire 32 to the negative feed line. Similarly, if car i was in the lead and car 2 was the next succeeding car, then the wiper arms would take positions with respect to the contact points which would be just the rever e of what is now shown in the drawings and armature (is would be held over by coil di, and armature e1 would still close the circuit through wire If it can be imagined that elevators i and 2 are higher in their hatches and both coming down, it will be understood from the setting of the wipers, as shown, that the switch E of elevator 2 would remain open and elevator 2 would not receive any signals until it had again gone far enough so that wiper 42 of elevator 2 got on the same corresponding contact with wiper 34 of elevator i, when the current would be carried to reset coil c2, again closing switch E. In other words, elevator 2 would have to get ahead of elevator l in its downward travel by a distance of siX floors.

The principal feature of the invention relates to the idea of automatically opening up the main feed line 53 which goes to the manual transfer switch in the elevator and as this switch has common wire to all the circuits of that elevator, that elevator can receive no signals until the relay switch E has been 0105s.. It is evident therefore that when the relay switch E is opened, this elevator, although it may be the nearest, is not responsive to the operation of the floor push button, but the elevator following anc which by its proximity opened switch E, will be responsive to the floor button. It will be evident that due to the co-relation between the manual by-pass switch in the car and the automatic switch E of elevator 2, that when either is opened, the elevator is not responsive to the push buttons which are operated.

As previously referred to, the device can be ar ranged to start the elevators from the top and bottom floors by means of a signal. The first floor light over the door could be connected to the energizing circuit all the time. When an elevator is standing on the main door this light would be burning all the time. However, as the next coming down approached the main floor and arrived say at the third floor, then if the wipers of the spacers were set to cut out the lights when the following elevator came within two floors of the preceding car, the light over the door on the main floor would be extinguished and this condition could be used as a signal for the elevator operator waiting at the main floor to start up.

The circuits for each elevator car being the same and the conditions pertaining to up travel being identical with those pertaining to down travel, it has not been thought necessary to duplicate the description pertaining to the operation of these elevators. One skilled in the art will readily understand how this system can be extended to include any number of elevators serving any type or size of building.

I claim:-

1. In an elevator signaling system for a series of cars in separate hatchways serving a plurality of floors, a signal circuit for each floor for each car, a push button at each floor for closing a break in the respective circuits of the corresponding floor including a locking relay, each of said cars being provided with a manual transfer switch and its associated main feed circuit and an operators signal, said transfer switch being normally closed, means operated by each car for completing the circuits related thereto; a spacing commutator for each car; a relay means associated with each spacing commutator, the contacts of which are in said manual transfer switch main feed circuit, said spacing commutators being electrically interconnected, each of said relay means having operating means controlled by their respective spacing commutators as a function of a predetermined spacing of said cars traveling in the same direction, whereby said relay means operate automatically when two cars approach within a predetermined vertical distance of each other in the respective hatchways to prevent the closing of a second break in the circuit for the floor signal of the advance car while closing the circuit of the floor signal for the rear car.

2. In an elevator signaling system for a series of cars in separate hatchways serving a plurality of floors, a signal circuit for each floor for each car, a push button at each floor for closing a break in the respective circuits of the corresponding floor including a. locking relay, each of said cars being provided with a manual transfer switch and its associated main feed circuit and an operators signal, said transfer switch being normally closed, a circuit commutator for each car and operated by the car common thereto for completing the circuits related thereto and restoring the prepared push button circuits; a spacing commutator for each car; a relay means associated with each spacing commutator, the contacts of which are in said manual transfer switch main feed circuit, said spacing cormnutators being electrically interconnected, each of said relay means having operating means controlled by their respective spacing commutators as a function of a predetermined spacing of said cars traveling in the same direction, whereby said relay means operate automatically when two cars approach within a predetermined vertical distance of each other in the respective hatchways to prevent the closing of a second break in the circuit for the floor signal of the advance car while closing the circuit of the floor signal for the rear car.

DANIEL LEWY. 

